Bluebasser86

95% of the time I'm in the kayak. Only reason I've taken the boat this year has been so family could go too.

Fury 795/300E Curado/20lb Big Game

I'm about 95% sure I had one explode on a frog this morning. It was bright yellow and I didn't see any big scales like a carp. Had that overaggressive catfish thrashing to it also. I've had lots of channels try to eat my frog, a few successfully, but I'm pretty sure this was the first time a bully has tried. I wish he would have got it, I haven't caught a bullhead in years.

Pretty solid 4 hours on the water after work Thursday morning.

Had storms supposed to be moving in today (never did), but it rained on me pretty good off and on this morning. I was hoping that would have the fish biting pretty well and they were pretty cooperative. Minus that stupid 6th Sense Vega frog (0-6 this morning which has me at about 1-20 hookups to bites ratio on it), that might as well not have hooks on it, I caught a fish on every rod I brought. Threw the Bull Wake quite a bit, because they were biting it ?

Nothing wrong with fishing livebait, but as you've now realized, there's something to be said for the ability to cover water and present your bait in places you just can't with livebait. I've watched bass inspect a livebait and turn away from it also. With lures, they don't usually have time to closely inspect it, so you get that reaction strike you'll rarely get with a live bait. Glad it's working out for you, now watch out for the ?

Conversely, how many old records are on the books that were misidentified as one species of fish but were actually another? I remember seeing a picture of a state record channel cat from another central state (Illinois or Indiana maybe?) that was CLEARLY a flathead catfish. Our state record spotted bass is 4.44lbs from a lake with almost no spotted bass and a terrible bass population in general now and it was even worse 40 years ago when it was caught (likely before spotted bass were even present in the low numbers they are in the lake). There's no pictures of it that I can find. I would very surprised if the fish was actually a spotted bass and not a misidentified largemouth bass.

It's bigger than any bass I catch, so I've got no real way to give an accurate guess. My first thought was 11/12 pound range.

The amount of toxins in a fish that size ? Big catfish are one of the worst fish about collecting lots of toxins in them because they live for a long time, spend a lot of time near the bottom, and they eat lots of small fish that either are filter feeders or also feed from the bottom and collect the heavy metals and toxins themselves. It's suggested to not eat more than one serving per week from the rivers here, and only 1 serving per month of bottom feeding fish due to mercury and PCB's in the water. Bass are also once per week statewide.

Disengage the spool and spin it with your finger to test your freespool time if you really need to.

Some of those would be killer smallmouth baits here.

Yep, I just peddle backwards while fighting big fish to keep them out of stuff and help keep pressure on them.

That bait is damaged. Not only is the hook smashed in, the lead on the back of the bait is damaged and the hook point is rolled. Not at all a reflection of the normal quality you get with War Eagle baits. The gold plating isn't poor quality and neither are the skirts. I fish them until the break usually right at the "R" bend after dozens of fish. The thinner wire breaks eventually, part of the trade off of a thinner wire bait.

Well he doesn't have his own forum anymore, so those that were so bent out of shape about it can sleep well tonight. LOCKDOWN!!

Learn this technique for unhooking fish. Never leave a hook in a fish's throat. Better for them to bleed to death quickly than die a slow death of starvation. Done correctly though, this has a very high rate of success and does very little damage.

Lots of folks don't know how to break their line when they get snagged, so they cut it at the rod tip instead and leave long lengths of line in the water/air instead. I've seen several kinds of birds dead, hanging from fishing line, some tangled, some had attacked the snagged bait and gotten hooked. I saved a struggling blue heron that was tangled in thick braided line by it's feet once. The bird would try to fly off and hit the end of the line like a dog hitting the end of a chain. It was exhausted thankfully, so I used my net like a shield and steered it's head and used my kitchen sheers I keep on board to cut away the line.

Falcon has a couple rods that fall into that category. I'm a big fan of the Bucoo SR line of rods. They're towards the lower end of your range but fish well above their price IMO.

Kill creek is a lake that I just never seem to figure out. I can always catch a few, but they're always dinks and each one feels like an accident more than a fish I figured out and caught on purpose. I was there maybe 2 weeks ago and struggled for about 10 fish, including the smallest bass I've ever caught on a frog, pulled my frog under like a bluegill pulls a bobber under. Biggest I caught might have touched 2lbs was on an 11" worm, ate it while I was reeling it in to make another cast.

I use 15lb Tatsu for a majority of my fluorocarbon pitching needs. Great thing about that line is it's supple enough to use in the open water situations, but strong enough to get them out when I get into something thicker than I probably should have with it.

Neither. Only time I put a plastic on a buzzbait is if I'm using a toad instead of a skirt.

I would guess 4.25lbs from that picture but it'll be well over 5 if it fills out it's frame.

I wasn't in a tournament, just pond fishing. Throwing a 168 S Waver in Bone color when this sucker flew up off the bottom and T-boned it. I'd have never believed it actually bit if I didn't watch it go down. My buddy got a cellphone video of the fight but I'm not smart enough to figure out how to get it on here.

Try some red wigglers or small garden worms. They're very easy to digest and small bass usually are very fond of worms.

If you consider how much goes into tournament fishing, the prefishing and preparation, the actual tournaments, sponsorship obligations, social obligations with BASS, family, just living life, you can't expect the man to be sitting around waiting to answer questions on the internet (for free and out of the goodness of his heart at that), at all times. He was pretty active last winter during the offseason. Personally, glad to have a pro here that is willing to participate and answer members questions in whatever capacity they're able to.